Reasons to prefer Free Software for your child's education

When you send your child to school, you expect that he/she comes back
with a certain knowledge basis, a certain social behavior. Knowledge is
universal. So is Free Software. Social behavior implicates values and
philosophy. So does Free Software. By implementing Free Software in schools,
we could reach a more effective educative system.

Sharing

Using Free Software allows your child to learn to share and cooperate
and thus join a whole community that shares knowledge.

Independence

Teaching a child to rely on proprietary software makes him dependent on
something s/he'll have to pay for. Teaching your child to rely on Free Software
allows him/her to continue using this software in his/her adult life while
helping others by sharing it.

Learning to program

The possibility to tinker motivates children to learn more. Free Software
allows them to learn about computers at any depth.

Learning to use software

Free Software gives children the possibility to learn how software works and thus
helps them to understand the concepts underlying a whole category or type of software.
They are then able to adapt to any environment, a key skill nowadays.

Learning in native language

Free Software applications are being translated into almost any language.
Thus, your child can learn and focus on the actual subject without any language or
cultural barriers.

Equality at home

With Free Software, teachers can give a copy of a program to each child,
without risking to mislead him/her to use an illegal copy. Thus, you are not put
in a position to make a financial decision and children of families with
less financial resources can learn with the same tools as every other child.

Intelligent use of the school's money

Without licence fees, the school saves money and can use it to train
the teachers or for technical support to disburden the teachers, and
thereby improve the quality of teaching.

Intelligent savings on hardware

Free Software can be used with minimal hardware requirements on almost any
hardware. Using and teaching Free Software also allows the school to
save money on the purchases of computers and updates, and thereby reinvest it rather on grey matter.

Stability and Reliability

Free Software is stable, secure and reliable. Security and other updates can
be implemented in a minute. Its maintenance is automated and thus time-saving.